Beneath the Ice
by Ruthie of the Wildcats
Summary: Oneshot. "He slammed a desperate fist against the layer of ice hard enough to draw blood. Fresh tears burst from his eyes as pain mingled with terror.Soris pounded his hand pleadingly against the ice, his eyes and mouth wide with horror."


The water was warm as Soris glided through it, and it left beautiful patterns of pale, dappled light on the backs of his fins. The young Zora kicked his feet, raising one of his arms and shifting his fin gracefully to that he rolled onto his back. In that position, he drifted calmly. He watched the shifting squares of dim light that marked the waves above his head, glancing down every so often to watch the patterns dance across his upturned belly and catching the occasional flicker of a brilliant spectrum in their rippling glow. The refractions would be more beautiful as the sun rose higher in the sky, for it was still early in the morning, but Soris wasn't bitter about the weak shafts of light he had now. He swept a fin through the water and smiled serenely. He was happy just to have the water.

The few, scant rays of the rising sun over Hyrule colored the clear water a pale grayish-pink, and a few shades of that hue touched the Zora boy's cerulean skin. Soris rolled over again and started swimming down towards the stone bottom of Zoras' Domain. The further he dove, the darker and cooler the water became. His web-finned feet touched down lightly on the cold stone floor; the Zora grinned privately as he crouched down lower to the ground, bending his knees and resting one hand on the bottom. _Anyone but a Zora would need to push off the floor,_ he thought with the pride so typical of his race. His indigo eyes were alive with amusement, and he spread his fins to drift up a bit through the cool water.

Then, as if in response to some imaginary starting pistol, Soris scissor-kicked his feet rapidly a few times to send himself shooting through the warm depths. His arms stretched out in front of his face—palms together, fins pressed close to minimize drag. The short fin on the back of the young Zora's head pumped twice, adding even more speed to his already incredible rush. Soris could hear the wake of bubbles he left behind crackling softly into nothingness; most creatures would have lost the tiny noise in the whooshing roar of the water, but a Zora never missed a sound in their own habitat. Faster and faster the finned boy raced, his body cutting through the water like a silvery-blue arrow; he narrowed his eyes to protect them. The waves grew warm around him, and the blue-black twilight of the lower depths gave way to the rosy dawn of the surface world. With no sound other than an exultant hiss, Soris breached the surface of the water.

Glittering droplets spun out from the leaping Zora child's body, twinkling and flashing in the pink light of the cavern like tiny stars. Soris shot up into the morning air, his eyes stretching wide with excitement and glee. He gave a laugh of pure happiness that bounced and echoed through Zoras' Domain, filling it with the sounds of joy. The rumble of the waterfall seemed to add harmony to the echoes, and the sound of it made Soris feel alive. He arced his torso like a dolphin, pointing his arms straight towards the water as he fell, and dropped back beneath the waves with nary a splash. He dove down, then bowed his back inwards and drifted sedately back towards the surface.

The Zora boy rolled again onto his back, gazing up at the glowing, dancing waves above him. His heart filled with a sudden, powerful love for his aquatic home, and a goofy grin stretched across his elegant, narrow face. Soris spread his arms out wide to embrace the water around him; he clasped them shut swiftly, and even crossed his ankles over each other to further the gesture of affection. The movement swept him off his back and set him upright underwater. The finned child held this posture for a moment before releasing the embrace and laughing a stream of bubbles. The water seemed to move and glint all the more, as if it was laughing along with him.

Soris loved these moments, when it felt like he had Zoras' Domain all to himself. You had to wake up pretty early if you wanted to be the first out of the sleeping caves in the morning and have any time to yourself, but the young Zora was good at it. He always woke up earlier than the rest; if something happened and he slept too late, his whole day fell apart. Every now and then, he was forced to share when an insomniac tried swimming laps to lull herself to sleep, or when another of his people decided to seize the day a little earlier than usual. Soris knew that it was only a matter of time before he would have to share the water with someone else—something that he really didn't like to do. Stretching mildly, he pointed himself down towards the bottom and swam lazily towards the caves.

The underwater shaft was dark as night when Soris entered it, but the young Zora had swum its length so many times that he knew it by heart. The main passageway was large enough to accommodate several Zoras at a time—about two Kings tall and three Kings wide, as the fish-people measured it. Round tunnels stemmed off from it, leading to individual sleeping caves; though their entrances were virtually indistinguishable from the dark walls, Soris could feel the shifting currents that flowed out from them, and could even catch small traces of their inhabitants' scents on the water. He swam along quietly until he reached a bend in the tunnel. Because he was still young, Soris shared a cave with his mother and father, though in a few years he would have his coming-of-age ceremony and be blessed by Lord Jabu-Jabu. After that, he would be free to claim a cave for himself and live on his own as an adult.

Soris's parents were still sleeping soundly when their young son drifted quietly into the cavern. The fish-boy moved slowly through the water, moving his fins sparingly so that he disturbed as little of the water as possible—for just as loud footfalls will wake a Hylian, unusual currents will rouse a Zora. Soris slipped down a side-shaft and entered the small chamber that served as his own room.

A glowing anemone cast a gentle light over the whole room, brightest in the corner and faded at the edges. Soris liked the light it gave him, but he liked even more the fact that the anemone never moved. He looked around his room silently, smiling at the familiar sights. (He hated it when things were moved around without his permission, and it made him happy when they weren't.) There were his building stones—stacked, as always, in a perfect tower; the stones that hadn't made it into the tower stood in a single, straight row in front of it. Soris stooped down and gently prodded one of the stones into better alignment, narrowing his eyes in concentration. He stood up, glancing around again. The toys nestled in their storage chinks appeared the same as when he'd last seen them, and the carved decorations on the walls hadn't changed—not that Soris had expected them to.

Satisfied that all was well, the young Zora curled up in the small hollow that served as his bed. His heart still surged with joy from his solitary swim that morning, though his body was ready to return to sleep. Soris closed his eyes and obliged.

* * *

"Hey, Soris!" Ralen cried, his voice reaching above the roar of the waterfall. Soris, startled by the sudden shout, jerked and landed gracelessly on his backside in the shallows where he had been crouching. He turned his head in the direction of the other Zora, and saw Ralen waving a finned arm to gain his attention. The older boy was grinning; the heads of a few other Zoras poked out of the water behind him. "Soris, we're heading out to the Lake for a game of driftstone. You want to come?"

Soris hesitated, looking from Ralen to the minnows he had been playing with before he'd been called. His eyes rested firmly on the little darting fish, and a slow smile spread across his face. He had been herding the fish with his fins, admiring the flicks and flashes of silver as they turned their bright sides from one direction to the next. A bottle rested in the shallows nearby; Soris had had plans to catch one of the minnows, so that he could hold its shimmering beauty in his hands and keep it for himself. He'd been trying for months to catch one, but they always seemed to zip out of the way seconds before the mouth of the bottle closed around them. _Maybe today I'll catch one,_ Soris thought wistfully. He snapped his head back to Ralen as the older Zora called out to him. The group of them—four total: Ralen, Dalis, Sutora, and Oren—was making their way over to the shallows where Soris sat.

"C'mon, it'll be good for you," Ralen said. He had the game equipment under one of his arms, and as he drew nearer, he handed it off to Sutora. "You need to start acting like a normal Zora. Stop poking at fish and play with us! We Zoras are a social people, after all." And with that, he reached down and tried to take one of the younger boy's arms in his grasp. Soris crab-walked backwards, shaking his head. No—he just wanted to play with the minnows. He didn't like driftstone, anyway, especially not with Ralen's gang; they played too rough and laughed if he cried. "C'mon, Soris," Ralen repeated, his smooth strides contrasting sharply with Soris's frantic splashes. "We'll have fun!"

Soris opened his mouth and felt two strong hands clamp down on his arms. He looked up fearfully to see Dalis and Oren flanking him; they had moved around his sides while he had been distracted by Ralen. The two older Zoras hauled Soris up out of the shallows and held him tightly. Ralen's friendly smile changed into a bitter smirk as the young boy eyed him with something approaching terror. "You're such a little freak," Ralen spat softly, and Soris flinched away from the words. "You never talk to anyone, you never play any games—all you ever do is sit off by yourself or swim around without a word. You're a freak, Soris, a freak."

"Is that a bottle?" Sutora suddenly cut in. She set down the driftstone gear and picked up Sori's glass treasure. The young Zora struggled in Dalis's grasp, futilely trying to raise his hand and reach for the object. Ralen turned and took the bottle from Sutora's finned hands. One hand wrapped around the neck and slapped the glass vessel against the palm of the other thoughtfully.

"What were you planning to do with this?" Ralen asked, narrowing his violet eyes as he stared hard at Soris. "Catch a little fishy to take home to mommy and daddy, or maybe keep it as a special pet? We don't play with fish, Soris, we eat them." The Zora boy felt his throat begin to tighten, and his whole body trembled slightly. "Freak," the older Zora muttered. He looked down at the bottle in his hands briefly, then shifted his eyes to the stone wall nearby. Soris gave a strangled whimper, the most sound that could scrape past the knot of tears in his throat. Ralen gave a single, soft grunt of amusement and hurled the bottle at the side of the cavern.

Thousands of diamond fragments showered around the site of impact, glittering in the early afternoon sunlight. Each one of those pieces felt like a shard of Soris's heart. The Zora child gave a thin cry of sorrow that drifted plaintively through the warm air of Zoras' Domain, and began to cry. He barely heard the sharp, scolding shout that burst through the caves behind him, hardly noticed that Dalis and Oren dropped him like a venomous snake, almost didn't hear the sounds of their fleeing splashes—all he knew was that his bottle was broken. Its keen-edged fragments lay in the blue shallows like underwater crystals. The bottle had been a gift from the man who lived in the house at Lake Hylia; Soris had visited him several times, and had stood patiently while the scientist—whose breath had smelled like frogs and moss—examined his fins. He'd said it was an honor to be allowed to study a Zora so closely, and that he was very grateful for the opportunity (because, he'd said, it was so difficult to find a Zora who wouldn't take offense to being "examined" like some common specimen), and that he hoped that Soris would be able to put the bottle to good use.

Soris hadn't wanted to catch a minnow to show his parents; he'd wanted to show it to Dr. Mizumi at the lake. He'd wanted the show the man the shimmering, silvery beauty that came from the Zoras' home.

The young Zora felt a hand on his shoulder, heard a voice murmur his name. "Soris? Soris, are you all right?" He turned with a sniffle. The Princess of Zora was down on one knee beside him, her smooth face near his. Soris blinked silently up at her, his broken bottle forgotten for a moment. Though he would sooner die that tell anyone, the young Zora harbored a rather powerful crush on the beautiful princess. Ruto smiled gently and rubbed her hand up and down his upper arm gently. "They didn't hurt you, did they?" she asked. Soris shook his head, sniffing softly. Ruto smiled. "That's good." She glanced at the small school of minnows nearby. "Were you trying to catch one of the little fish there?" He nodded, offering her a small smile. It hurt him to think that he would never be able to catch a minnow for Dr. Mizumi, but somehow, Ruto's gentle eyes numbed that pain. "Would you like me to help you?"

If anyone else had asked, Soris would have said no. He preferred to do things alone, to be by himself. He didn't like anyone swimming too close to him, and he shuddered to think of another Zora dabbing at his minnows. But it was Princess Ruto who was asking to join him; the young boy couldn't refuse her. He smiled, nodded. Ruto stood up and held one of her hands out to him. "Come with me, and I'll get you a new bottle to hold your minnow." Soris wrapped his hand around the Zora woman's, and together they walked towards the throne room. Soris felt as if he were gliding on air; heat rushed to his cheeks at the very thought that he was holding this beautiful Zora's hand.

When Ruto handed him the replacement bottle, the boy clasped it tightly to his heart and treated her to one of his rare laughs. Its glass sides were smooth and crystal-clear; Soris could feel the dampness left from the Princess's hands. They spent the rest of the afternoon together in the shallows by the waterfall, prodding the fish and gasping in wonder at their bright darts. Ruto spoke softly about a boy she had once known, a finless Hylian who had rescued her, to whom she had given the Zoras' Sapphire. Years had passed since she had last seen him—seven of them, to be precise. Soris listened to her as he chased his bottle after the minnows, hoping to sweep one of them into its belly for Dr. Mizumi. His indigo eyes narrowed in concentration, and the tip of his tongue pressed against the corner of his mouth carefully.

"I…I wouldn't be surprised if he's found a finless girl to love," Ruto was whispering quietly. "And maybe it's better if he has. But…I still love him, even after all these years. I just wish—"

She broke off there as Soris suddenly thrust the dripping bottle in her face. A massive grin split his face, and his eyes were alive with joy. He laughed again, pointing with one finger of his free hand at the tiny silver minnow thrashing and flashing in the ice-clear jar. Its silver scales caught the light of the setting sun beautifully as it darted around its glass prison, sending bursts of sharp light dancing across the darkening cavern. Ruto smiled and pulled the small Zora into her arms. "You finally caught one, Soris!" she told him happily. Soris gasped and flushed at the sudden close contact; instead of writhing away and whining, as he normally did when someone tried to touch him, he relaxed in her grasp. He pressed his cheek against her warm neck and sighed contentedly.

For at least an hour after that embrace, Ruto and Soris watched the captured minnow swim around in the bottle. The light in Zoras' Domain changed from golden afternoon to orange evening; the water caught that color and bounced it against the stone walls of the cavern in ever-shifting murals of light. Soris heard a voice calling his name, and turned to see his mother waving to him from the center of the pool. He looked back at Ruto. The princess smiled and nodded. "Maybe I'll see you tomorrow, Soris," she said. Soris smiled broadly and nodded, then turned away and dove into the warm, crimson waters.

As he swam after his mother, Soris watched the patterns of light playing across his fins, dancing, glowing, swaying. He had started his day out like that, and it seemed strangely fitting that he should end it that way as well. The warm water glided over his body, caressing him, soothing him. He looked at the bottled fish in his hand and smiled softly; the minnow seemed confused to see water whooshing past without feeling it. The deeper he dove, the harder it became for him to see his captured fish, for they had reached a depth where there was too little light for even the minnow's polished scales to reflect. Soris pressed the bottle against his heart, stroking its side silently in the cool darkness.

Ralen had called him a freak. Well, if freaks caught minnows in bottles, if freaks got to spend time with and receive presents from beautiful Princesses—then Soris would gladly be a freak.

* * *

The next morning, Soris awoke at the same time he always did. His heart was bouncing excitedly in his chest. He would go to the lake today after his morning solo-swim, and see the man who lived there; today, Dr. Mizumi was going to see not only a Zora, but also a Zora's Domain minnow! Soris flicked his fins excitedly as he picked up the glass bottle that held the little fish prisoner. He held it up before his face, grinning happily…and faltered. The Zora child swirled the vessel cautiously and watched the thin, dark shape of his minnow rock gently back and forth. It did not flicker; it did not dart.

_He's cold,_ Soris thought. _It's cold this morning. The water's cold. He's slowing down because it's cold here._ Something tickled the back of his mind with worry; he wasn't sure if it was how still his fish was, or how strangely chilly the water felt this morning. _It's warmer by the surface. I'll take him there—he'll be warm again. He'll start swimming because he'll be warm. _

Drifting slowly past his still-sleeping parents, Soris made his way through the long, dark tunnel and out of the sleeping caves. His hands clasped the bottle to his chest; his feet swished behind him to propel his body through the water. He swam by memory, his useless eyes closed in the impenetrable blackness of the cool sleeping caves. At the end of the tunnel, he opened them and drifted towards the warmth and light that he knew awaited him closer to the surface. The light, he found. The warmth, he did not.

Soris found it strange—and unwanted, and a little worrying—that the water around him did not grow warmer as he left the darker depths. The water seemed thicker, too, and harder to cut with his fins. The extra effort didn't bother him; the unchanging cold did. The Zora boy paused halfway to the surface and studied his minnow. If the water didn't warm up, then his fish wouldn't warm up, and if—

He nearly dropped the bottle.

The minnow's scales, once so brilliant and beautiful, were horribly dull. Its tiny fins were still against its flanks, and its fine gills did not so much as flutter. Its glassy, round eye had a foggy look about it. But perhaps worst of all was the fact that its white-scaled belly was pointed at the top of the bottle. The minnow was dead.

Soris hadn't known. He'd had no way of knowing. He didn't understand that when water is held still, it doesn't take long for the air inside of it to leave—and that it takes even shorter if something is actively taking the oxygen from the water. The tiny fish had suffocated overnight. The young Zora stared openmouthed at the dead minnow, tears threatening to burst out from his eyes. His lower jaw quivered pitifully, and he held the bottle—his bottle, Ruto's bottle—tightly against his chest. He felt his racing heart thump against the glass sides of the vessel, felt fear grip him.

Dr. Mizumi might be able to help the minnow. Soris hated to think of presenting the kind man with a dead fish—but if the lake doctor worked his magic on the minnow, then he would get a chance to see it alive and beautiful and flashing. The finned boy kicked his legs sharply through the water, shooting himself towards the small passage that led from Zoras' Domain to Lake Hylia. He brought himself up short as he realized that a crystalline block of ice sealed the path; a web-fingered hand pressed against the frozen barrier in disbelief. Soris jerked his head upwards. Though he, as a Zora, loathed the idea of walking any more than he had to, it was the only way to get the minnow to the lake doctor. He thrashed his legs and head-fin, only to fling out his arms and legs to keep from smashing his face against a thick layer of ice that covered the entrance-side half of the pool.

Zora's Domain was freezing over.

Soris back-paddled away from the freezing water, shuddering with cold and fear. The ice looked thinner towards the waterfall—and the piece beneath the falls looked like it was still liquid! The Zora boy shot towards the solidifying water, pounding his fisted fin against the bottom of it, searching for a weak point. It was hard to swim; the water was so cold, and it was getting thicker with each passing second. Soris's heart was flooded with hot terror, and tears of panic streamed out behind him as he swam. The water was freezing fast—why? Why? Why was it freezing? He had to escape! He had to get out! The water couldn't freeze with him still in it!

By the time Soris reached the falls, the water had already frozen a few inches thick. The young Zora let out a panicked cry. One fist clenched around the neck of his bottle, while the other pounded against the ice. It did not give. He gave a strangled shout and dove down deeper, hoping to come up hard and break free of the ice that way. Fear like he had never felt before coursed in his veins. He was afraid of things being out of order, and he was afraid of Ralen's rough play and frequent bullying, and he sometimes was afraid when his parents would argue about who was to blame for how un-Zora-like and strange their son was—but the thought of being frozen underwater filled the fish-boy with more fear than those things and anything else in the world, combined. It was a fear that trumped all others, and it crippled him, made him weak. Soris was paralyzed for a few seconds before he started swimming towards the iced surface of the water, and that slow start cost him dearly.

He slammed a desperate fist against the layer of ice hard enough to draw blood. Fresh tears burst from his eyes as pain mingled with terror. Soris pounded his hand pleadingly against the ice, his eyes and mouth wide with horror. Shrill screams tore out of his throat as he thumped the unyielding surface again and again. The water was growing colder and colder around him, and the young Zora struggled gamely to break the barrier between him and safety. But his frantic slams against the ice were getting slower and slower; the water was harder to move in. Soris could feel the chill beginning to seep into his bones, stiffening his body and binding him in place. He rested his palm against the ice, stretching his face up desperately. His eyes were wide and leaking hot tears into the freezing waters; he drew in a painful breath and gave one last, unheard cry for help, bubbles streaming out from his lips.

The ice claimed him, and Soris felt his mind go numb.


End file.
